Quality Control and Quality Assurance Inspection

Quality control or quality assurance inspection is defined as the assessment of characteristics with respect to defined standards in order to assure quality to the customers for any industry of business.

Any quality monitoring inspection process consists of the following steps

• Deciding the sample size - The sample size for quality inspection is decided based on the total lot size to be inspected and the criticality of the characteristics involved. International standards such as ISO 2859 help the inspector to decide the right sample size for the inspection.
• Selection of samples - Once the sample size is decided, the next step is in the inspection process is selection of the samples. Based on this sample, a decision needs to be taken on the entire lot so it should be a true representative of the lot. To ensure this, the samples should be selected randomly.
• Measuring or Testing - Once the samples have been selected randomly, these need to be measured and tested. Various standards are available which can be used depending upon the characteristics to be measured or tested. Sometimes the customers may ask for the tests as per their procedures, which may be more stringent than the standards adopted by the organization. However, these terms and conditions need to be agreed upon before entering into a contract with the customer.
• Examining - Some characteristics only need to be visually examined or inspected. These characteristics may look easy but these are the ones, which may become a point of controversy, since these are subjective in nature. For e.g. shade of the color. Again standards come to an inspectors rescue at this time. Moreover, measurement system analysis helps in removing any doubts on measurement, testing or examining. 
• Comparing with specifications - The results of measurement, test results, results of visual examination need to be then compared with the agreed specifications to decide if the goods or the services meets them the very purpose of a QA inspection. If the samples tested meet the specifications, the entire lot is accepted, otherwise it is rejected.
• Deciding on subsequent action - Based on the quality inspection results and the comparison of the same with the specifications a decision on a lot is taken. The important point to be noted here is the kind of action initiated if the lot does not meet the specifications. If the manufacturer takes action only to dispose off the defect then the defect may reoccur in the next lot too. All this results in wastage of various resources. The right approach in such cases is to find the real reason or the root cause of the defect and then take corrective and preventive action to eliminate these causes and hence assure good quality.

The customer normally decides a QA inspection. If the customer wants to inspect the lot before it is delivered to him, he/she can inform the manufacturer about it. Normally while deciding the order, such conditions are agreed upon. The customer may send his own inspector for quality assurance inspection or select a third party quality monitoring and inspection services for doing this. Sometimes, the customer may wave off the inspection based on past experience with the manufacturer.

In short, quality monitoring and inspection is a way of assuring quality to the customer.

If you like this entry ; please visit our other Storage Mart blogs :
Storage Mart Self Storage Blog :
http://www.selfstorageblog.com/

Tweet This Post 

Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

View admin's Profile      Subscribe via RSS